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Boulder-based Zayo Group files to raise $100 million in IPO

By Andy Vuong The Denver Post

Posted:
07/02/2014 03:39:30 PM MDT

Updated:
12/04/2014 07:59:33 PM MST

Dan Caruso, CEO of Zayo Group, at the company's Boulder, Co. corporate headquarters. The company is a national provider of fiber-based Bandwidth Infrastructure and carrier-neutral colocation products. (Photo provided by Zayo Group)

Boulder-based Zayo Group filed plans Wednesday to raise $100 million in an initial public offering, a long-anticipated move for the Internet network operator.

The regulatory filing states that Zayo posted a net loss of $137.2 million on revenue of $1 billion during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013.

Renaissance Capital, an IPO research firm, estimates that Zayo could raise "$500 million or more," stating that the deal size noted in the filing is likely a placeholder.

"For private equity investors of this type, once they've been investors for seven years, they tend to need to start looking at liquidity, so they will be looking for an exit option in the relatively near term," Caruso told The Denver Post.

In an S-1 filing detailing its IPO plans, the company said it would use proceeds from the IPO for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions, the repayment of debt and working capital.

Zayo operates a global fiber-optic network that offers high-speed Internet connections to nearly 15,000 office buildings in 297 markets. In addition to providing business clients with broadband and related services, the company connects wireless towers and data centers to its fiber network.

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"The appetite will be good for Zayo," said Donna Jaegers, a telecom analyst with D.A. Davidson Companies.

After years of struggling with a glut of fiber after the tech bust and telecom meltdown more than a decade ago, network operators are seeing more demand as large businesses increasingly rely on bandwidth-heavy services.

"Demand is very strong for (Internet) services from enterprise customers wanting to connect to the cloud," Jaegers said.

"The acceleration in the development of bandwidth-intensive devices and applications has resulted in a significant need to further fill in the 'last-mile' gap, leading to substantial capital investments in fiber networks by bandwidth infrastructure providers," Zayo stated in its filing.

The company has grown through a series of acquisitions, including deal for industry peer AboveNet in 2012 valued at more than $2 billion.

At the end of March, Zayo employed 1,421, according to the filing. The company has about 400 workers in Colorado.

Zayo is on target to generate more than $1.1 billion of annual revenue in 2014 based on results during the quarter that ended in March.

In fiscal 2013, Caruso was paid a base salary of $10,951 but received stock awards valued at $17.9 million, according to the filing.

A Zayo spokesman said the company would not comment during the registration period.

IPOs typically occur a couple of months after a company files its S-1.

In the U.S., there have been 148 IPOs so far this year, and they have raised $31.5 billion, according to Renaissance Capital.

That includes market debuts for four Colorado companies: ski resort operator Intrawest Holdings, two real estate companies, Farmland Partners and Century Communities, and Louisville biotech GlobeImmune, which debuted Wednesday. The four raised about $359 million in their offerings.

Last year, the best year since the dot.com boom of 2000, seven Colorado companies raised $4 billion through IPOs, led by Antero Resources, which sold shares valued at $1.57 billion.

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